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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lars Frehse" data-source="post: 314820" data-attributes="member: 1674">Free your mind part 5 of 5They crossed the Hornswythe river by ferry and entered the town. After getting rooms in an inn and a good meal, Niklas set off to find a forge. After talking to some smiths, he found a workspace where he could craft a new axe for Torn, who had sold the gold from his old axe that had been transformed by the grey ones.They settled down for the next two weeks, and Niklas and Jan worked hard in that time: Repairing their old arms and armor and forging new masterwork weapons. None of them had lost any of the skills their father had tought them back in the family's forge in Oreirover.Meanwhile, Trepat and Ben soon left the teeming streets in order to look around in the surrounding lands, while Torn spent his time in the town. There, for the first time, he encountered full blooded Orcs.He was surprised. Even though there were five full grown and armed orcs walking down the busy shopping street, nobody seemed to mind. The orcs, in turn, were joking with each other and went to a blacksmith's stand, where they carefully examined the weapons he had on display.If he ever expected to meet any fullblooded orcs, he expected to do so in the plains, or, if in a city, in the middle of a pitched battle. But here they were, bartering and joking with a human merchant while the locals weren't giving them any more suspicious looks then they were giving him.He took a closer look and saw that they all seemed to be wearing some sort of uniform with a badge that showed a fist that was crushing a stone.Driven by curiosity, he walked up to them and said in the coarse orcish language his father had taught him:" Greetings! My name is Torn and since I am from lands far south of here, I am surprised to see orcs in a human town.".A female orc, who seemed to be the leader of the small troupe answered:" You must come from far away indeed, little brother, that you have never heard of the Gravelfists. We are the proudest tribe here in the plains of Lede, and we have decided to cooperate with the humans when it suits us."."I have never heard of any arrangement like this one."."Of course not. But we are following the words of our prophet Gortak, who told us that the only future for our people lies in cooperation with the humans.""And how do you deal with them?"."We live on the plains and we have big herds of cattle and other animals. So, we have furs, meat, livestock and whatever we capture from the other tribes to trade for things we lack, like salt, iron, some weapons and other things like that."But, listen, I would like to chat on like that, but we gotta get going. We want to be back in our camp before the sun sets."."I see. Farewell."."Farewell.".The orcs left, and now there was one thing left to do for Torn: He wanted to talk to Silian, the sage from whom his grandfather had stolen the book of death.He asked around, and soon found out that Silian was a respected member of the community: An old wizard who spent most of his timei n the archeological dig site in the middle of the silt beds called "the morass" just outside the western edge of the town.There in the middle od the gloomy and treacherous swamp, dozens of scholars with their workers were excavating the site, searching for artifacts of an ancient civilization that had once covered all of the plains of Lede.Torn took a raft to get there, and after asking around, he was introduced to an old man who was both tall and thin, and who's eyes were burning with enthusiasm, making everyone he talked to forget that he was eighty years old. When he was approached by the half-orc, he turned away from the site where he had been directing several workers: "Good afternoon, young man, what can I do for you?""Good day. I wanted to ask you about some occurences that happened decades ago. Do you have a short moment?""Yes certainly.""About four decades ago, a book was stolen from you, right?""Yes,", Silian looked around, and seeing that they were alone, he continued:" the Book Of Death. Why do you ask?""Well, because it was my granddad who had stolen it.".Silian seemed to be genuinely amused by this information:"Is that so? Then you must be very proud of your granddad because he was an excellent thief then. Now, why are you telling me this?""Thanks for the praise. Unfortunately, my grandfather died before I was born, but he told my father something about what he did with that book, so I want to go looking for it, and after I found it, I would be willing to return it to you in exchange for your information."."Now that is quite an offer. But I have to decline, I am afraid, because I am not interested in that book anymore. It only brings trouble to it's owner. Still, I think your quest is worthwhile for a young man, so I will tell you what I know. How can I help you, after all those decades?""Thank you. What I know is that he stole it for an organization that was called the "Guild of the ancients", or something..."Silian interrupted him:"That would be the "Cult of Ancients...". So, my suspicions were true..."He motioned Torn to sit down next to him on the raft from which they were watching the digging workers, after making sure that they werer still alone and noone could hear them talking, he said:" When I was a young wizard, I was part of an organization called "The order of the ancients". We were an organization of gentlemen and -women who were interested in the civilizations that had existed before the divine war."Of course the civilization that intrigued us the most was the slarecian one: After all, it was so elusive and mysterious... As the time passed, we discovered secrets like that book, and there were some who weren't interested in sheer knowledge, but the application of that knowledge. Now, knowledge gained through the slarecians, meant knowledge about death, so you can guess where it lead to."Soon, we saw the folly of our research, and stopped it, but by now, there was the faction that had decided to use the knowledge: the cult. And they were no longer scholars and gentlemen, but assassins. From what I heard, the Cult that I encountered back then is now torn into two factions: Those who want to stay independent, and those who serve Belsameth... Yet, all call themselves "The order of the ancients", the name that we once used for our peaceful cause..."Anyway, the book is useful for the cult, because with it, you can skip years of training in order to become a skilled assassin... Nowadays, the cult is everywhere in Ghelspad, like a disease that has spread in every part of a body. You would have to start your search where your grandfather brought the book. Do you know that.""Yes, sir. He brought it to Mithril.""Mithril! So they don't even fear the might of the golem", the old man exclaimed, shaking his head."Good luck, though. If you need help, you may want to turn to a former student of mine, who now lives in Mithril. He too was a member of the original order, but unfortunately, he wasted away his talent as a wizard in order to join the Fists of Mithril... His name is William."Torn chuckled:"Actually, I know him. He was the teacher of a friend of mine!""Ah, and that friend of yours, is he a wizard?""No, a monk".The old wizard now stomped his feet like a little boy would do:"Damn. All this waste of talent!".Having learned what he wanted, Torn left Silian to his work and left the morass. Then, after Niklas and Jan were done with their forgework, they all left the town and rode on towards Mithril.Mullis Town was connected to Mithril by the Codrada Corridor, a magnificent paved road that stretched uninterrupted between the two cities. It was wide enough to accomodate two horse drawn carriages in both directions and was named after the famous hero from Mithril who had originally conceived it.For two days, they rode uninterrupted, as at the evening of the second day, they noticed a commotion in some nearby shrubs.Immediately, they unsheathed their weapons as a dozen orcs charged towards them. They fought fiercely, and after a while, they gained the upper hand over the opponents who attacked them with huge axes and javelins. But just as they thought they had won, more orcs ran towards them from further down the road- apparently they had planned to wait until the adventurers were between the two groups, so that they could attack them from two sides.Then, from the north, ten riders attacked the approaching orcs. Those riders, too, were orcs, but they were wearing some sort of uniform, and Torn recognized the symbol of the gravelfist tribe. Their leader rode a dire wolf and his followers were all on horseback, and they quickly slaughtered the remaining attackers.Then, the leader rode up to the heroes while the wolf he rode on was curiously eyeing Ben's horserat. He adressed them with his soothing deep voice" My name is Donnangar. We are sorry that you were assaulted in our territory. As a compensation, we would like to invite you to spend the night in our camp."Ben bowed:"We would be more then honored.".And without further ado, they rode along with the gravelfist orcs towards their encampment.</blockquote>

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